So Close, So Far

According to the marquee on the old South Congress porn theatre, Austin is just 230 miles from Mexico. Drivers heading toward downtown are given the mileage to Canada. I’m not sure about the purpose of the marquee’s mileage data, but it is though-provoking. I pass the sign all the time–usually when heading to HEB for groceries. The distance from Austin to Dallas is almost the same as from here to the International Bridge between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras.

It’s incredible to me that a region so close, so easily within reach, is basically an unexplored, unknown place to me. I’ll think nothing of hopping on a plane to visit a city a thousand miles away, yet for some reason don’t consider the opportunity that exists here in Austin: after a short day’s drive, you can be in another country. Granted, there is obviously no equivalent of a Vancouver on the Northern Mexico border. But it is exciting and intriguing to think that there are people who have a completey different take on food, politics, media, government, religion, and so on–so close.

Speaking of Vancouver, an interesting research document (PDF) comparing the evolution of Canadian and US cities crossed the Congress for New Urbanism listserv today. Although the United States and Canada have relatively similar values, it seems to me that we’re heading down different paths in many areas. For example, because Vancouver and Toronto have not been shaped around cars and freeway to the extent of their US counterparts, in many ways they’re more aligned with major European cities. The paper sheds light on some facts about Canada that I was not aware of– such as its national ethos. In the US it’s “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.” In Canada, the national motto is “Peace, Order, and Good Government.” Another statistic: Americans are twice as likely to attend church and there are twice as many churches, according this paper, in the US (per capita) than in Canada. Also illuminating is the view of authority. Take the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, for example. “It is a national police force, an idea that would make Charlton Heston apoplectic. The RCMP provides local policing services for every municipality in the country excepting only a few of the largest.”

July 12th, 2004